Avatar S3E2: "The Headband"
The Footloose episode | Grade: B+
Thanks for tuning in to my fourty-second of 61 daily reviews of Avatar: The Last Airbender! Yesterday, we watched S3E1: The Awakening.
After the focused premiere of Book 3, this second chapter settles us comfortably into the filler we’ve come to expect from the early-season episodes. Since Team Avatar is in Fire Nation territory after Aang washed up there in The Awakening, they decide to steal some Fire Nation disguises off some guy’s clothesline and head into town for a meal. But it turns out Aang is wearing a schoolboy’s uniform, and some truant officers drag him into the local school. He picks the name Kuzon, after his Fire Nation friend from one hundred years ago.
While this episode is mostly for fun, it does take some time to explore the relationship between mainlanders and the colonists. Based on his poor etiquette, the teacher can tell Aang’s not from around here, so she assumes he was born in one of the Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom. The colonies aren’t super fleshed out in Avatar, but the Gaang briefly visited one back in The Deserter — presumably the teacher thinks Aang is the descendant of a Fire Nation family who moved to the colonies, but there may be connotations of intermarriage, too. Either way, the teacher has no qualms about calling him “mannerless colony slob,” and sniveling jock-brat Hide insults him as “colony trash.”
We also get some insights into the propagandism of the Fire Nation school system. The kids are made to recite the “Fire Nation oath” every day while facing a massive portrait of Ozai, encouraging them to view their identity through the lens of the state and the Hundred Year War.
My life I give to my country, with my hands I fight for Fire Lord Ozai and our forefathers before him. With my mind I seek ways to better my country, and with my feet may our March of Civilization continue.
Additionally, there’s a national history book which contains falsehoods about the beginning of the War. Aang calls that out when the teacher asks about Fire Lord Sozin’s battle against the Air Nomad army: “the Air Nomads didn't have a formal military. Sozin defeated them by ambush.” But he quickly shuts up to avoid attracting more attention.
But the episode’s main focus is on the Fire Nation’s restrictions on… dancing.
Dancing is not conducive to a proper learning environment. Young people must have rigid discipline and order.
Aang decides to throw a secret dance party to teach the other students how to express themselves. Which is actually super cool of him. He has to teach the anxious kids how to dance, but the party is a smashing success. At the end, it’s broken up when the brownnosing Hide tattles to the headmaster. But the other kids wrap their sashes around their heads to match Aang’s headband, making it impossible to identify him, and the Gaang slips away.
The party also escalates the flirtation between Aang and Katara. For the first time, she shows a bit of jealously over the young Avatar as he’s seen dancing with a popular girl, On Ji. But Aang eventually asks her to dance, and they perform a smoldering duet inspired by their bending forms as everyone looks on transfixed. At the end of the episode, she gives him a kiss on the cheek.
Not much happens in Zukoland this episode, but the prince makes multiple visits to Uncle Iroh’s cell in the royal prison. He finally admits out loud that his redemption isn’t what he thought it would be. But Iroh, with his back turned to his nephew, never says a word. Zuko tries bribing him, begging him, and finally rages at him — but his uncle remains silent, quietly shedding an unseen tear. But in his pleas, Zuko reveals his true fear: Aang.
I think the Avatar is still alive, I know he's out there, I'm losing my mind. Please, Uncle, I'm so confused. I need your help.
………
Forget it, I'll solve it myself! Waste away in here for all I care!
How will he solve it himself? In the final scene, he meets a bearded assassin with a metal arm and a strange tattoo on his forehead. “The Avatar is alive. I want you to find him, and end him.”
See you tomorrow for Episode 3: The Painted Lady! Share your own thoughts on this episode in the comments.
Spare observations
“We’re in enemy territory. Those are enemy birds!”
Aang can’t wait to use all his outdated slang. “Greetings, my good hotman.“ “Flameo, hotman!”
“Wow. You must be one of those popular kids I've been hearing about.” “That’s right.”
“Thank you for coming, Mr. and Mrs…” “Fire. Wang Fire. And this is my wife, Sapphire.” “Sapphire Fire. Nice to meet you.”
Mai and Zuko’s romance is really blooming. “I don’t hate you.” “I don’t hate you, too.”
"This is incredible! It's like my inhibitions just disappear! …OK, they’re back again.”
Friends of the White Lotus
Check out the Gaang’s Fire Nation outfits! They’ll keep these new designs until the invasion. It’s also the end of Katara’s hair loopies — she wears her hair down for the rest of the series.
Iroh won’t speak again until The Avatar and the Firelord.
The assassin Zuko hires is Combustion Man, aka Sparky Sparky Boom Man, who will attack Team Avatar later in the season.